A decade ago there was no such thing as a house with a wave in the backyard. In 2026 there are sixteen communities in our real estate section selling or building exactly that, and the list grows every few months. One of them is finished, several are taking deposits, and most are somewhere between an approval and a hole in the ground.
The prices run from about $1.6 million for a house beside Waco Surf to more than $3 million for one in the Brazilian countryside, plus a category of buyer who skips the house entirely and pays six figures for a membership. This guide covers what is actually for sale, how the access models differ, and the recurring costs that do not appear in the sales brochure.
One thing up front: we are not a broker, we take no commission on any sale, and nothing here is financial advice. Every figure is what a developer, a public listing, or a news report stated at the time of writing, and prices in this market move.
Why the wave comes with a house
Surf parks are expensive to build and seasonal to operate, and the industry has largely concluded that the lagoon works best as an anchor for something larger. At the industry's first real estate conference in July, developers made the comparison to golf repeatedly: courses are rarely built alone, because the surrounding housing is what makes the numbers work. Aventuur put a typical site at 30 to 50 acres with only about five and a half of them under the wave.
That is the reason so many of the newest lagoons are private. The wave is a feature of the real estate, and the real estate is what pays for the wave.
What is for sale right now
The Desperado, Waco, Texas. Eighty-eight for-sale homes planned beside Waco Surf around two surf lagoons, a golf course and a 25-acre lake, listed from $1.6 million, with ICON homes previewed as coming soon. Founders who place a lot deposit get priority lot selection. The developer had pointed at a summer 2026 groundbreaking, and the sales site now says construction begins in 2027, which matters if you are underwriting a delivery date.
Zion Shores, Washington, Utah. Sixty-five properties around a nine-acre community lagoon, with a PerfectSwell pool plus a UNIT Dynamic Wave and a UNIT Standing Wave, about an hour from Zion National Park. Waterfront lots were marketed from $800,000 early on; the current site plan lists the available lots at $1.69 million each, with a mix already sold, reserved, or held for fractional ownership. Surf club membership comes with ownership. The founder told KUTV in May 2026 that construction was about halfway done and opening was about 16 months away.
Cabo Real Surf Club, Los Cabos, Mexico. Homesites start at $1.5 million in the developer's October 2026 release, covering estate lots of roughly 2,200 to 2,600 square meters, Boardwalk homesites on the strand and villas of up to six bedrooms, all inside the established Cabo Real masterplan with a Robert Trent Jones II golf course. The thirty-one three-bedroom Surf Casitas, listed from $2.75 million in March 2026, are now fully reserved, and the first homes are due by May 2027. The developer, Meriwether Companies, reports more than $200 million in contracted sales, and says the wave basin is set to open in December 2026. Membership is reserved for real estate owners, and the club says buying a home does not by itself grant access: that takes separate fees and a separate application.
Austin Surf Club, Del Valle, Texas. A Discovery Land Company community with Kelly Slater, planned for 147 residences on more than 330 acres around a Kelly Slater Wave Co basin. Construction paused in April 2026 after seven businesses filed $4.6 million in liens, according to The Real Deal, and no restart timeline has been given, so treat the timeline as open.
DSRT Surf, Palm Desert, California. Fifty-seven single-family lots, for-sale villas, and a hotel pad wrapped around a 52-module Wavegarden Cove, the same size as the one planned for HTX Surf in Houston. The lagoon is finished and, since September 2026, selling public sessions.
Boa Vista Village, Porto Feliz, Brazil. JHSF's resort community an hour from São Paulo, anchored by a 220-meter PerfectSwell pool. The sales site lists lots in the Village Parks & Garden condominiums from about R$6.3 million, Grand Lodge Residences from about R$6.9 million, Surfside Residences overlooking the wave from about R$11.5 million, and 696 square meter Village Houses from about R$19.5 million.
São Paulo Surf Club, Brazil. The sister project, inside JHSF's Cidade Jardim complex in the city itself. Residences of roughly 260 to 870 square meters are listed as coming soon. No list price has been released; Click Petróleo e Gás reported an estimate of around R$45,000 per square meter.
Praia da Grama, Itupeva, Brazil. The only completed one on this list. The first Wavegarden Cove in South America opened in 2021 inside the gated Fazenda da Grama estate, and the estate is in its fourth and final phase, with beach-linked lots of 2,200 to 3,300 square meters. A local broker reported resale prices of R$7 million to R$7.4 million for lots with beach title, plus about R$250 a month in beach fees and near R$7,300 in condominium costs.
El Nido, Punta del Este, Uruguay. A gated community between Manantiales and José Ignacio built around a Wavegarden pool, with about 75 percent of its roughly 430 lots sold by September 2026, according to its commercial manager, and prices about double their launch level. In July 2026 a partner said about 10 percent of the work remained, the first houses were under construction, and waves were expected in late October or early November 2026.
Molaya Bay, Lídice, Panama. A planned resort about 50 minutes west of Panama City around a 2.5-acre lagoon the developer says will run Endless Surf, with a 111-key Tribute Portfolio hotel under a franchise agreement with Marriott signed in December 2025. The sales site is taking residence reservations and selling founding-member wave passes but publishes no prices, and it now describes 280 residences against 130 in the Marriott announcement. No groundbreaking has been announced.
South Britannia, British Columbia. The largest program on the list at roughly 1,050 homes, and the slowest: 900 market units plus 150 non-market affordable units, as 560 townhouses and 490 apartments rather than detached lots. The surf park is Phase One, targeted for 2029, and homes follow from 2030 toward a 2035 build-out.
Ocean Kamp, Oceanside, California. Up to 667 all-electric homes plus a 300-room hotel on a 92-acre former drive-in site. In October 2025 the developer said mass grading was nearly complete and vertical construction was targeted for spring 2026; no update on that start has been published. The stated goal is still a wave in the water before the 2028 Olympics.
Veranda West, Draper, Utah. The most ordinary way to live beside a wave in the United States, and a rental one: the Draper Journal reported that the townhomes and apartments will all be rentals. About 418 units, including more than 100 townhomes already built and close to 300 apartments, wrap around an 8.8-acre Endless Surf lagoon approved in June 2026, with its opening targeted for late 2027 to 2028 depending on the source.
Aventuur Jacksonville, Florida. The lagoon sits inside eTown, an existing master-planned community with homes already selling across a range of normal Jacksonville price points, with multifamily planned in later phases. Of everything here, it is the cheapest way to end up living minutes from a Wavegarden Cove.
Coral Mountain Desert Club, La Quinta, California. A 400-acre private club community from Meriwether Companies, the same developer as Cabo Real, set against the Santa Rosa Mountains at the south end of the Coachella Valley. Groundbreaking was announced in April 2026, with an 18-hole David McLay Kidd course, a Hart Howerton clubhouse, racquet sports and resort pools. Surf access here is not an on-site lagoon: it runs through the separate Thermal Beach Club wave nearby. First-phase amenities and the golf course are targeted for 2028.
Three Bridges, Salem, Utah. A 532-acre membership resort in the Wasatch foothills, built around an 18-hole course and a Beach Club on a surf and paddle lake. UNIT Surf Pool lists an 18-metre floating standing wave there, a wave ridden in place rather than a lagoon, with an estimated 2027 opening. The 2023 announcement priced custom homesites from $300,000 to more than $1 million. Before you buy for the surfing, note that the Beach Club and surf lake were targeted for spring 2026 in that announcement and have not opened.
Four ways to get access
Buy the house, the wave comes with it. Zion Shores, Praia da Grama, Cabo Real, and Austin Surf Club tie surf access to ownership. This is the purest version of the model and the most expensive.
Buy a membership without a house. Crest Surf Clubs on Long Island is the clearest example: Front Office Sports reported average initiation fees of about $100,000 and annual dues averaging about $20,000, for a pool that has no announced opening date. São Paulo Surf Club works similarly, at Brazilian luxury-club prices.
Buy nearby in the wider masterplan. eTown in Jacksonville and Ocean Kamp in Oceanside put ordinary housing inside or beside the district; at Veranda West in Draper the homes are rentals. Access terms vary and are usually not deeded, so read what is actually promised.
Do not buy at all. DSRT Surf's hotel, and South Britannia's planned cabins and surf hotel, are built to sell you nights rather than title. (DSRT's 57 planned villas are a different product, and are for sale.) For most surfers this remains the sane option.
The recurring bill
The purchase price is the part people focus on. The dues are the part that determines what the wave costs you every year for as long as you own.
Zion Shores is unusually transparent about it: HOA dues have been estimated at $500 to $600 a month, and the community has said that covers roughly half the lagoon fee, with surf pool operations covering the rest. Crest's structure is around $20,000 a year. São Paulo's is near R$3,300 a month. Final figures at most of these projects are set by boards that do not exist yet.
Those numbers make sense against what operators told the room in Orange County: insurance runs 5 to 8 percent of operating expenses at a surf park, against 1 to 2 percent at a restaurant; developers are advised to model about 50 percent pool occupancy; and a property takes roughly three years to reach maturity. A lagoon is a demanding machine to keep running, and in a private community the residents are the ones funding it. Ask what happens to dues if the club underperforms, because someone has to cover the gap.
The risk that does not appear in the brochure
Several of these communities are selling homes around a wave that does not exist yet, and surf park schedules slip more often than they hold.
Austin Surf Club is the cautionary case: a marquee developer, an eleven-time world champion, and a construction pause in April 2026, with contractor liens past $16 million by July. South Britannia has moved from 2027 to 2029 for its pool, with homes after 2030. Ocean Kamp is phased through the decade. Even DSRT Surf, which finished its lagoon in mid-2026, only opened public bookings in September, without announcing an opening date.
The practical rule is to buy the house and the location on their own merits, and treat the wave as an upside rather than as the thing you are underwriting. If the lagoon opening two or three years late would change your decision, that is the answer.
What to ask before you sign
- Is the lagoon separately funded and under construction, or does it depend on home sales?
- Who operates the wave, and is that contract signed?
- Are surf sessions included in dues, capped per household, or billed on top?
- How many surfers share the pool at capacity, and what does a resident session actually look like on a busy Saturday?
- Can the operator sell public or corporate sessions that compete with residents for water time?
- What happens to dues if the wave opens late, or runs under its projections?
- Where does the water come from, who pays for it, and what happens if the jurisdiction restricts it?
- Is the membership transferable when you sell, and does it convey with the home?
- For lots: is there a build-out deadline, and what design and builder restrictions apply?
Where this is heading
The private and residential share of this industry keeps rising. Brazil's best pools are already members-only, Mexico's newest is private, Utah's two are residential, and the projects announced in the last year lean the same way. For anyone who just wants to book a session, that is worth tracking: our directory flags access model on every park, and the price guide covers the ones that still sell sessions to the public.
For everyone else, the surf-anchored community has become a real asset class with real buyers, and it is being financed the way golf communities were forty years ago. The full list of projects we track, with developers, unit counts, and status, is in our real estate section.
Rendering courtesy of Cabo Real Surf Club / Endless Surf. Prices are as stated by developers, public listings, or press reports at the time of writing. Surf Park Guide is not a broker and receives no commission on any sale.
